Fix Your Firefox: The ‘new tab’ feature reveals secure information.

Thanks for the tip, Hank.

The latest version of Firefox (ff13) has an unintended problem (which Mozilla will fix). I don't know if the problem exists in the latest Pale Moon build, however. To those who use it, you'd best check.

The update from June 5th included updates the Home and new tab pages. If you haven’t updated since before June 5th, you’ll probably be wise to keep waiting until Mozilla patches this problem.

You see, Firefox takes snaps of the 13 preceding sites you’ve been on, and there’s a ‘tabs on demand’ whose purpose is to speed your browsing.

Among those 13 tabs, your online banking, or credit info logon, etc. might lurk… ‘https’ doesn’t matter for those snaps.

Mozilla stated:

“We are aware of the concern and have a fix that will be released in a future version of Firefox. Mozilla remains resolute in its commitment to privacy and user control. The new tab thumbnail feature within Firefox does not transmit nor store personal information outside the user's direct control.

The new tab thumbnails are based on users' browsing history. All information is contained within the browser and can be deleted at any time. Users can also switch back to using blank new tab screens by clicking the square icon in the top right corner of the browser. That will change the default preference to show a blank page, rather than the most visited websites when a new tab is opened.

Users who share their computer or use Firefox on a public computer should follow best practices for protecting their privacy by utilizing the built-in privacy tools in in Firefox, such as Private Browsing Mode.”

So, Steven Parker (thank you!) wrote over at Neowin:

“If you wish to disable the New Tab Page completely, visit about:config, type in browser.newtab.url, and then set the value to about:blank (or about:home, if you prefer).”

Source:

http://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-new-tab-feature-exposes-secured-information